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Sceptic changes the rules – and targets four psychics
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 UNITED STATES. James Randi, who has gained more fame as a paranormal sceptic than he ever did as a magician, is currently announcing to his supporters at a convention in Las Vegas (18-21 January) that he is changing the rules of his $1 million challenge.
He is also announcing to fellow sceptics a new ploy to draw attention to his lost cause: pursuing the top psychic practitioners, Uri Geller, John Edward, Sylvia Browne and James Van Praagh.
Why? Because his challenge hasn’t been getting the publicity he hoped for. He admits as much on the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) website:
“Frankly, when we introduced it in 1998, we had great expectations that it would attract heavy attention from the media and from the woo-woos. Yes, the media have contacted us for their perfunctory ‘contrasting opinion’ needs, but those prominent among the strange folks who embrace the Dark Side have hidden under the Sylvia Browne Rock, which gets more crowded every day…”
Basically, the problem is that those who have sought Randi’s $1 million – which he says he will give if they satisfy him and his committee that they have genuine paranormal powers – have largely been unknowns who are either self-deluded, mentally unstable, outright frauds or otherwise questionable as far as their abilities or motives are concerned.
Setting up the testing procedures for every individual who wants his $1m is time-consuming, expensive and no doubt tiresome for a 79-year-old who has made a good recovery from heart surgery but clearly no longer has the energy to take on all-comers.
So in future he intends to limit his acceptance of those wanting to take up his offer to applicants who have both a media profile and an academic validation. Media recognition would involve a TV interview, newspaper report or some other write-up about their alleged abilities. The second requirement entails “some sort of validation” from “an appropriately-qualified academic” – delightfully vague terms from an organisation that claims to be scientific.
Randi believes these new rules will make the challenge “a more attractive subject for the media to handle and pursue”.
That’s highly unlikely. The numbers applying will certainly diminish, but so will the interest. Besides, there are a growing number of critics – many of them academics – who see Randi’s challenge for what it is: an exercise in which the odds are stacked against the applicant and the only “winner” is Randi.
The other big disappointment for Randi and the JREF is that the big names in the world of the paranormal have failed to take the bait and accept his challenge to prove their powers to him. And why should they? They are content to offer evidence to those who seek their help.
Why do they – whether conveying spirit messages or dowsing for water or hidden objects – need to provide 100 per cent proof (which is what Randi is demanding) when what they do already satisfies many level-headed enquirers? And more importantly, why should those who believe they have special powers accept a challenge from someone with his own agenda and for whom they have little respect?
So, if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed…. James Randi has decided to reduce time-wasting on the challenge and go after the big psychic names. Another “major revision” which he is announcing in Las Vegas, at the “Scepticism and the Media” convention, is what he calls “the pursuit”. This is how it will work:
“Rather than merely waiting for applicants to present themselves, we will regularly and officially highlight well-known persons in the field and challenge them directly by name. Those challenged will then have a six-month period during which they may respond; during that period the JREF will heavily publicise the fact that such a challenge has been issued, we will issue press releases on the matter, and we will be frequently asking that those challenged make a response.
 “Tentatively, we will begin by formally challenging Uri Geller, James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne and John Edward (left), on April 1st.”
The timing is typical of Randi’s pathetic sense of humour. He assumes that a launch on April Fools Day will have us all falling about with laughter. The reality is, as he will discover, that none of these psychics will be the least bit interested in accepting his challenge. Which means it will be Randi who will be making a fool of himself.
Sylvia Browne has accepted the challenge in the past – on television – but has since changed her mind. Besides, why does Randi feel his challenge is so important? He’s not a scientist. And he’s also a total non-believer in anything paranormal, so there’s no way he’s going to allow anyone to prove him wrong.
Besides, the mediums concerned are already the subject of much sceptical comment from the world’s media. It’s not difficult to find criticism of their activities both in newspaper reports and on TV shows. There's even a website devoted to stopping Sylvia Browne demonstrating as a medium. There is also balanced commentary from objective observers (and www.ParanormalReview.com hopes its visitors will place it in that category) who are open to the possible genuineness of some paranormal phenomena but are also aware of the need to be cautious because of the opportunities for fraud and delusion, reporting on failures as well as successes – see Missing boy: psychics get it spectacularly wrong.
But our biggest worry about James Randi and the JREF is that he and his supporters are trying to make scepticism the new religion – a religion in which belief in nothing is paramount ... apart, that is, from their own importance and infallibility.
FOOTNOTE: A British psychic has, apparently, announced his intention of accepting the Randi $1 million challenge. See: Baby mind reader rises to the challenge.
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Posted on Saturday, January 20, 2007
Category: Paranormal
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